8-track cassette
The 8-track cassette is an analog sound carrier that was particularly popular in the 1960s and 1970s. Since the housing only contains one tape reel, it is also called a cartridge (as opposed to a cassette, which has two reels).
The 8-track system was developed by William P. Lear - who is known for the development of the Learjet - from the less common 4-track cassette, which in turn was a variant of the Fidelipac introduced for broadcast purposes . Both use the endless belt technology according to Bernard Cousino . The 1965 inserted cassette contains a single winding coil for the ¼-inch (= 6.3 mm) wide, rear graphite coated plastic - tape , the associated guide mechanism and a pressure roller designed and had an endless belt. The speed of 9.5 cm / s (3¾ "/ s) is exactly double that of the compact cassette.
The design enabled the production of very simply constructed and correspondingly cheap playback devices. While two-reel systems also have to enable direction changes and thus rewinding processes in the forwards and backwards directions, there were only a few 8-track playback devices that offered a faster advance. Rewinding is technically impossible.
The endless tape has eight tracks and thus allows up to four stereo recordings (or eight mono recordings) on one tape. This achieves the length of an LP. There is an electromechanical switch between the tracks by moving the read head in the playback device. The lane change can be done manually via a button at any time, otherwise one makes UHF band for each band pass for an automatic lane change. The switching tape is also the glue point that turns the tape into an endless tape. It is attached to the side coated with magnetic material. There is usually a light indicator that signals the track that is currently being played.
With the 8-track system, portable playback devices became more widespread in motor vehicles for the first time . The previous technology - the 4-track cassette - was only able to establish itself in the US states of California and Florida. The devices were particularly popular among truck drivers , as pre-recorded 8-track cassettes were available in specialist music stores and at petrol stations. Devices for self-recording of empty cassettes were also offered, but found relatively few buyers. Blank cassettes with up to 90 minutes of recording time as the sum of all four double tracks were available.
The disadvantages of the technology are primarily the audible click when changing lanes and the occasional crosstalk between the tracks when playing. With misaligned devices, parts of the adjacent tracks can be quietly perceived. In addition, the tape was not "unrolled", but - as can be seen in the picture - "pulled out" in the middle; the result was a far greater wear and tear and earlier quality losses than the consumer was used to from coil devices.
In the 1970s, the 8-track technology was ousted from the market by the stereo audio tape cassette ( compact cassette introduced by Philips in 1962) with smaller dimensions and - due to half the tape speed - longer recording times, after auto reverse technology made the annoying turning of these cassettes superfluous.
The last commercially recorded 8-track cassettes appeared in the USA in 1988, but were no longer sold through specialist music stores at that time.
Web links
- Techmoan : Revisiting the 8-Track Cartridge & Unboxing a BNIB 1975 Pioneer HR-99 Recorder
- Demonstration of the 8-track cassette player in the Rover P6 3500 from 1970
Individual evidence
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento from October 30, 2016 in the Internet Archive )